This issue of International Socialism overlaps with two of New Left Review (II/90 and 91). They include an ambitious two-part study of Marx in the 1840s by Gopal Balakrishnan. He tries to reframe the old argument about whether there is… Continue Reading →

Merilyn Moos, Beaten but not Defeated: Siegfried Moos, A German anti-Nazi who settled in Britain (Chronos Books, 2014), £17.99 Siegi Moos arrived in Britain in 1934 after walking across Germany to avoid capture by the Gestapo—and almost certain death—and… Continue Reading →

Gajendra Singh, The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars (Bloomsbury, 2014), £27.99 The 100th anniversary of the First World War has brought into scope the “hidden” role of Britain’s Indian colonial soldiers. The recruitment of Indian… Continue Reading →

Mike Gonzalez, Hugo Chávez, Socialist for the Twenty-first Century (Pluto, 2014), £11.50 In 2004 I remember sitting in one of the minibuses that take the more well-heeled residents of Porto Alegre in Brazil from the centre to the suburbs,… Continue Reading →

Paula Bartley, Ellen Wilkinson: From Red Suffragist to Government Minister (Pluto, 2014), £11.50, and Matt Perry, “Red Ellen” Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World (Manchester University Press, 2014), £75 Ellen Wilkinson led an extraordinary life. The daughter of an under-employed… Continue Reading →

Colin Barker, Laurence Cox, John Krinsky and Alf Gunvald Nilsen (eds), Marxism and Social Movements (Brill, 2013/Haymarket, 2014) £111/£25.99 Marxism and Social Movements is an incredibly useful and important book. At its theoretical heart it asks two seemingly simple… Continue Reading →

Claudio Pavone, A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance (Verso, 2014), £20 A Civil War is a detailed survey of the ideas and motivations of the partisans and their fascist enemies in Italy between 1943 and 1945.… Continue Reading →

Simon Joyce’s piece “Why are there so few strikes?” in International Socialism 145 is very welcome. It asks an essential question, and Joyce clearly achieves his aim of opening a discussion.1 For revolutionary Marxists this is not an academic issue.… Continue Reading →

Simon Joyce has written a welcome article that seeks to address why Britain’s strike record is at a historically low level.1 Simon’s argument is that the “confidence theory” of strike action, associated with the International Socialist tradition, is insufficient to… Continue Reading →

On the eve of Jamaica’s celebrations marking 50 years of political independence, the Jamaica Gleaner released the results of a poll finding that an estimated 60 percent of Jamaicans believed that they would be better off if they had remained… Continue Reading →